Patent application title:

Webcall

Publication number:

US20050021345A1

Publication date:
Application number:

10/287,830

Filed date:

2003-05-05

Abstract:

Webcall International dialing product. Webcall will originate a call in the United State from a user on the Internet using Browsers and will call the number select by the user. After the user is connecting the product will originate a second call to select contact in and connect the two parties. At the end of the call the system will automatically call the next contact on selected list or dial a new number directly.

Inventors:

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Classification:

H04M7/003 »  CPC main

Arrangements for interconnection between switching centres; Services and arrangements where telephone services are combined with data services Click to dial services

H04M3/42195 »  CPC further

Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges; Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers Arrangements for calling back a calling subscriber

H04M7/1295 »  CPC further

Arrangements for interconnection between switching centres for working between exchanges having different types of switching equipment, e.g. power-driven and step by step or decimal and non-decimal where the types of switching equipement comprises PSTN/ISDN equipment and switching equipment of networks other than PSTN/ISDN, e.g. Internet Protocol networks Details of dual tone multiple frequency signalling

H04M15/00 »  CPC further

Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP

H04M15/56 »  CPC further

Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP for VoIP communications

H04M2203/2016 »  CPC further

Aspects of automatic or semi-automatic exchanges related to features of supplementary services Call initiation by network rather than by subscriber

H04M2215/202 »  CPC further

Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements; Technology dependant metering VoIP; Packet switched telephony

Description

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Document Objectives

This document presents the Product Requirements Specification for the initial phase of the Webcall product. It describes at a high level the operation of the application, proposes a conceptual solution approach, and provides more in-depth detail around specific requirements for the application.

These product requirements will be assessed by Professional Services and Engineering for feasibility (both development effort and technical feasibility), then serve as the basis for the development of the solution Functional Specifications, software, test cases, etc.

In addition, this document provides some limited market analysis and background information to assist Professional Services and Engineering in specification, design and development of the product and underlying platform.

1.2 Project Goal

The objective of the project is to deliver a production quality application which will allow our customer to offer Web-based call back services to their international customer in several Caribbean and Central American countries.

1.3 Project Scope

This project will encompass the basic capabilities of the following key areas of functionality:

    • Web Interface for following functions:
      • Subscriber, Organization and System Administration
      • Placing calls
    • Provisioning Interface accessible via remote dial-up/telnet session (System Administrator access only)
    • Telephone Interface for subscribers
    • Call Detail Records

Future phases and additional features beyond those specified herein will be considered separate projects, and will be sponsored by their own business cases and project justification. These include additional language and capability.

1.4 Risks

It is assumed that Webcall will run on the TAS 8.0 platform, therefore the availability of the platform presets a risk.

1.5 Assumptions and Dependencies

It is assumed that the application will execute on the TAS 8.0 platform.

The following dependencies have been identified in relation to the development of Webcall:

    • Availability of the TAS 8.0 platform
      1.6 Requirements Classification

The detailed requirements are classified according to the urgency with that they must be included in the application The classification categories are:

    • Mandatory (M)—The application must conform to the requirement.
    • Highly Desirable (HD)—The requirement is very important to the application in terms of its competitiveness and/or completes. Effort should be made to include this requirement in the finished product.
    • Desirable (D)—The feature would be beneficial to users of the application and would assist in the competitiveness and salability of the product.
    • Future (F)—Indication that this feature will be required in a future version of the application. Largely for information purposes and steps should be taken in the current release to facilitate later addition of the feature.
      2. Background
      2.1 Business Objective

The Business Objective for Webcall is to provide WebCall with and international callback application that will allow their subscribers to request a call set up to originate both calling legs from the U.S.

2.2 Markets

WebCall is a new division of Executive Assistant, a small Service Provider based in Miami, Fla. Its customers will be international individual end users and small businesses.

Usage volume estimates are unavailable at the current time.

2.3 Conceptual Product Description

The diagram below shows a high level conceptual view of Webcall and its environment.

3. Webcall System Users

3.1 Introduction

The primary Users of Webcall will be international small businesses employees.

3.2 Subscriber

A Subscriber is classified as the primary user of the application. A Subscriber has the ability to initiate calls and preform personal account maintenance via a web interface.

3.3 External Caller

A secondary user of the application is an external caller. No special features are required for the subscriber's called party The subscriber's called party's experience will be the same as if the subscriber dialed the number directly.

3.4 Organization Administrator

An Organization Administrator is responsible for the management of all aspects of the application for a company or a dependant with subscribers using the application. An Organization Ad at is able to create, delete, modify and suspend subscriber accounts.

3.5 System Administrator

The System Administrator is responsible for the management of the underlying platform and physical and logical system resources. This includes installing, staring, and stopping the execution of the application. The System Administrator has the ability to perform all Organization Administrator functions.

3.6 Webcall IIc Support

A Webcall IIc Support User will have access to perform maintenance functions on the system. In addition to overall System Administrator functionality, Webcall lic Support may require functions for license key management, software installation and configuration options, and perhaps the exercise of additional logging or other debugging tools.

3.7 External Operational Support Systems

Interfaces for external OSS are required to be implemented for the following functions:

    • Monitoring health of the application and underlying hardware platform
    • Monitoring load on the application and platform
    • Extracting billing records

Interfaces may be may be asynchronous ASCII, SNMP, FTP or other.

4. Interface Requirements

4.1 User Interfaces

Three mechanisms for Human interface will be required for the Webcall, including the following:

    • WEB Interface (GUI)—Used by Subscribers, and Organization and System Administrators, and provides the following functionality:
      • Subscriber Administration
      • Account Balance Administration
      • Call Set Up
      • Ability to Pie Calls
      • Organization Administration
      • System Administration
      • Billing Administration
    • Telephone Interface (TUI)—Used by Subscribers to instruct Webcall to perform system functions.
    • Menu Driven Provisioning Interface (MDI)—Used by System Administrator for provisioning of subscriber accounts via a remote dial-in/telnet session.

The following describes some of the physical and high level features of the user interfaces, with the functional aspects of these described in the following section.

Feature
ID Feature name Description M/HD/D
4.1.1 Subscriber Access
4.1.1.1 Min and Maximum The System Administrator M
Password Length will have set a minimum
(6) and maximum length
(14) of password to which
the User must adhere.
4.1.1.2 Encrypted storage All passwords must be M
of passwords stored in encrypted
fashion. Administrators
may NOT read them
in plaintext.
4.1.2 Subscriber
Interface
Company branding Purchaser must be able
and Customization to customize the login
screen with their logo
and brief instructions.
4.1.2.1 HTTP 1.1 The system must support M
HTTP 1.1 over TCP/IP
for the web access.
4.1.2..2 HTTPS As an option for deployment, M
the system must support
HTTPS (secure) over TCP/IP
for the web access.
4.1.2..3 SSL Option Purchaser must have the M
option of deploying
the application using a
secure web server, Secure
Sockets Layer and HTTPS.
4.1.3 Language Support
4.1.3.1 Initial support The initial release of M
for American Webcall must support the
English English language (American
dialect).
Additional languages for F
prompts and web interface
are a future requirement.

4.2 External System Interfaces

Requirements Related to External System interfaces

Feature
ID Feature name Description M/HD/D
4.2.1 Billing
Requirements
4.2.1.1 Integration with The Webcall application M
External Billing is required to integrate
System with the Active
Telemanage Corp Billing
System.
(www.activetel.com)
4.2.1.2 CDRs Pull The customer will have M
the ability to pull CDR
at X number of intervals
per 24 hours.
4.2.1.3 CDR Storage CDRs should be stored M
for 7 days, and
automatically deleted
on day 8.
4.2.1.3 CDR Back Up Back up CDRs should be M
Files abled to stored on
both a CD and or
network server
4.2.2 Rating Interface
4.2.2.1 Integration with The Webcall application M
3rd Party Rating is required to integrate
System with the Active Telemanage
Corp Billing System to
provide rating functionality.
Please refer to section
5.6 for more details

5. Functional Requirements
5.1 Introduction

This section describes the functional feature requirements of Webcall. The capabilities are defined against the class of user who will require the feature.

5.2 Subscriber Functions

The following table defines the functional features required for the Subscriber interface in the Webcall application.

Feature
ID Feature name Description M/HD/D
5.2.1 Subscriber
Login
5.2.1.1 Login Secure login to the system M
requiring a user ID
and password.
5.2.1.2 Reset Password User may initiate the reset M
and sending of a
temporary new password
to the user's email if
it has been forgotten.
5.2.1.3 Logout Subscriber may logout of M
the application
without impacting the call.
5.2.2 Subscriber
Administration
5.2.2.1 Change Password The ability to change a M
password used over the
GUI.
5.2.2.2 Modify Subscriber Subscriber can modify M
Account their callback numbers
and callback number
labels.
5.2.3 Place Calls
5.2.3.1 Initiate Call(s) Subscriber can initiate a M
via Web Interface call for the selected
destination.
5.2.3.2 Subscriber Accept The system will dial the M
Call from System subscriber's callback
number, before initiating
the call to the
destination. The subscriber
MUST accept the call.
(Accept Call DTMF = 2)
5.2.3.3 Prompt at Upon completion of a call, M
completion of call the subscriber is prompted
via the TUI if they wish
to terminate the call, place
the next call, or skip over
number. (Terminate Call
DTMF = 8, Next Call
DTMF = 6, Skip Number
DTMF = 7)
5.2.3.4 Initiate Call(s) Upon successful completion M
via DTMF of all web entered numbers,
the subscriber is prompted
via the TUI if they wish to
terminate the call or place
a call via DTMF. (Terminate
Call DTMF = 8,
Place Call via DTMF = 3)
5.2.3.5 Re-attempt If a call should not be M
incomplete calls completed successfully,
i.e. busy signal, the system
will ask the subscriber if
they would like to reattempt
to connect to the incomplete
calls. (Re-attempt = 9)
5.2.3.6 Return to Main If the subscriber receives a M
Menu ring no answer or voicemail,
they can enter a combination
of DTMFs to be returned to
the main menu.
(Cancel Call = *22)
5.2.3.7 Return on Busy System informs Subscriber M
line is busy, and
returns to main menu.
5.2.3.8 Balance Update After the completion of each M
leg of a call, if the
subscriber refreshes his/her
screen the balance
field will be updated.
5.2.3.9 End on The call ends when the M
Subscriber exit Subscriber hangs up.

5.3 Organization Administrator Functions

The following outlines the feature requirements for the Organization Administrator (OA). These Administrators will access Webcall using the Web interface.

Feature
ID Feature name Description M/HD/D
5.3.1 Organization
Admin Login
5.3.1.1 Login Secure login to the system M
requiring a User ID and
password. The system will
NOT allow the users to save
their user id and password.
5.3.1.2 Change Password The ability to change a M
password, where a
password is used to
access the GUI.
5.3.1.4 Logout Subscriber may logout M
of the GUI.
5.3.2 Subscriber Account
Management
5.3.2.1 Create Subscriber Ability to create a M
Account subscriber account.
5.3.2.2 Modify Subscriber OA can modify the M
Account subscriber's account
information.
5.3.2.3 Delete Subscriber OA may delete the M
Account subscriber account.
5.3.2.4 Suspend Subscriber OA may suspend the M
Account subscriber account,
preventing them from
logging into the system
but leaving the data in
the system.
5.3.2.5 Resume Subscriber OA may remove the M
Account suspension of access to
the subscriber account.
5.3.2.6 Create Account The system must have a M
Balance field for the OA to be
able to enter a balance
for each subscriber
5.3.2.7 Modify Account The ability to adjust the M
Balance subscriber balance
5.3.3 Management
Reports
5.3.3.1 View Call Log OA may view a log of all M
completed calls for
the organization.
5.3.3.2 View Subscriber OA may view a list of all M
Account Balances subscribers and
outstanding balances
5.3.3.3 View Negative OA may view a list of all M
Balance Accounts subscribers who are
carrying a negative balance.

5.4 System Administrator Functions

There are two major categories of functionality for the System Administrators.

    • Managing system health
    • Managing Organization and their administrators

The following section outlines requirements for managing Organizations and Administrators.

Certain functions must be available over the Web GUI, while the majority may only be required over a Menu Driven Interface (MDI). The following also assumes the System Administrator has access to general system functions such as DBMS back-up utilities, FTP and file copy, process start/top, etc.

Feature
ID Feature name Description M/HD/D
5.4.1 System Admin
Access
5.4.1.1 Login Secure login to the system M
requiring a User
ID and password.
5.4.1.2 Change The ability to change a M
Password password, where a
password is used to
access the Web or MDI.
5.4.1.3 Modify Change Password or other M
Profile Administrator
profile information.
5.4.1.4 Logout Administrator may logout M
of the Web GUI or MDI.
5.4.2 Organization
Management
5.4.2.1 Create Ability to create an M
Organization organization.
5.4.2.2 Modify Ability to modify an M
Organization organization definition.
5.4.2.3 Delete Ability to delete an M
Organization organization.
5.4.2.4 Suspend Ability to suspend an M
Organization organization and all
of its subscribers.
5.4.2.5 Create Ability to create an M
Organization Account for an OA.
Administrator
5.4.2.6 Modify Ability to modify an M
Organization Account for an OA.
Administrator
5.4.2.7 Delete Ability to delete an M
Organization Account for an OA.
Administrator
5.4.2.8 Suspend Ability to suspend an M
Organization account for an OA.
Administrator
5.4.3 System
Management
Reports
5.4.3.1 View Call A log of total number of
Totals call legs, and number of
minutes accumulated for
the subscriber and
destination legs.
5.4.3.2 View Port A plot of the past Port M
Utilization - usage statistics
Historic
5.4.3.3 View Call SA may view the current M
Usage calls in progress.
5.4.3.4 View Call SA may view a log of all M
Log completed calls
for a specified period.

5.5 Rating Functions

The following table defines the functional is required for the rating all calls initiated via the Webcall application.

Feature
ID Feature name Description M/HD/D
5.5.1 Web Interface
5.5.1.1 Input Subscriber The system must provide an M
Balance account balance field for
administrators to input a
subscriber's balance
5.5.1.1 Subscriber The system must provide an M
Balance account balance field for
subscribers to clearly see
their account balance. This
field may only be updated by
the System Administrator.
5.5.2 Balance Updates
5.5.2.1 Subscriber balance The system should update the M
updates subscriber balance after each
B leg is completed, and
when the final Leg A is
terminated.
If the subscriber's balance is
above $7.00, he may place the
next call.
If the subscriber's balance is
below $7.00, please see
section 5.6.3.3
5.5.3 Prompting-
Balance Updates
5.5.3.1 Update Call Balance The system must play the M
Prompt subscriber a two prompts
letting the subscriber know
his balance is being updated,
then state the new balance.
“Please hold while your
balance is being
updated.”
5.5.3.2 Below Minimum After the completion of each M
Balance Prompt leg B, the system will update
the subscriber's balance. If
the balance is less than $7.00,
then the subscriber can not
place the next call. If the
scenario should occur, the
system should play a prompt
informing the subscriber and
then terminate Leg A.
“You current balance is
below the minimum required
balance, please contact your
system administrator.”

Please Note: The system does not update the subscriber's balance until a call is completed, therefore there is a potential for a subscriber to obtain a negative balance. Depending on the length of the call will determine amount of the negative balance. Limited the total talk time per a single session, may reduce the risk of large negative balances.

Feature ID Feature name Description M/HD/D
5.6.1 Dialing Restriction
5.6.1.1 International The system should support M
Dialing the international
dialing standard
(15 digits).

6. N n-Functional Requirements
6.1 Packaging Requirements

Webcall will be packaged and delivered on the TAS platform. As such there are no application specific packaging requirements.

6.2 Performance Requirements

The following outlines the performance requirements for the Webcall product.

Feature ID Feature name Description M/HD/D
6.2.1 Performance
Requirements
6.2.1.1 TUI Response The TUI must provide a M
response time of <2
sec 95% of the time in
the busy hour. (time
measured from DTMF
input to start of
response message or
next prompt).
6.2.1.2 Web GUI The Web GUI must
Response provide an application
response time of <5 sec.
95% of the time in
the busy hour
6.2.1.3 MDI Response The MDI must provide M
a response time of <3
sec 95% of the time
in the busy hour

6.3 Installation Requirements

The following outlines the installation requirements for the Webcall product.

Feature ID Feature name Description M/HD/D
6.3.1 Installation
requirements
6.3.1.1 Separate System The basic system hardware M
and Application and operating software
Installs must be able to be
installed prior to
the Webcall application
6.3.1.2 Scripted All Webcall installation M
Application should be accomplished
installation via automated scripts.
6.3.1.3 Application All application software M
Software should be installed
Installation from CD ROM or Network

6.4 Maintenance Requirements

The following outlines the maintenance requirements for the Webcall product.

Feature ID Feature name Description M/HD/D
6.4.1 Maintenance
requirements
6.4.1.1 Software Software back ups may M
Back Ups be backed up to
network or CD ROM
6.4.1.2 BackUp and System restore process M
Restore should not EXCEED 2
hours
6.4.1.3 Hardware That ability to manage M
Test T1, network control,
network host table,
and ARP should be
available, at a minimum,
via a command line
interface.

6.5 Documentation Requirements

The following documentation is required for Webcall.

Feature
ID Feature name Description M/HD/D
6.5.1 User Documentation
6.5.1.1 Subscriber Quick One page tool that allows M
Reference Guide the subscriber to quickly
navigate the through Webcall
6.5.1.2 User Guide - Detailed document outlining HD
Organization how to add, modify, delete
Admin subscribers; create reports;
etc.
6.5.2 System Detailed document outlining M
Administrator how to manage system health
Guides and perform overall system
administration.
6.5.2.1 Installation One page tri-fold card that M
Card explains how to install the
system. (Customer will
provide sample document)

6.6 Training Requirements

There are no Training requirements for the Webcall initial release.

7. Future Enhancements

Future enhancements will be identified at a later date under a separate project.

Feature
ID Feature name Description M/HD/D
7.1 Language
7.1.1 Spanish Language - The web interface will M
Web Interface need to be translated
to Spanish
7.1.2 Spanish Language - The prompts will need M
IVR to be translated to
Spanish
7.2 Conferencing
7.2.1 Web initiated The application will be M
Conferencing required to initiate a
multiparty from a web
initiated call.

Claims

1. this is cost effective way to connect two people and anywhere in the world. Direct originating calls from the US on US rates to users and contacts by means of selection over the Internet. As outlined in the SPEC sent on Jan. 30th I claim to have the product design, tested, and ready for

Use to support this call model.